


twelve

by pleasebelievemylies



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Canonical Character Death, Excuse the Writing, Found in the depths of my old fanfic folders, cos who doesn't love some pietro and wanda sibling bond, right before your heart gets torn out
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-12
Updated: 2016-08-12
Packaged: 2018-08-08 10:02:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7753318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pleasebelievemylies/pseuds/pleasebelievemylies
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Twelve minutes does not count."</p>
            </blockquote>





	twelve

Wanda remembered Slovakia, when they were younger. Filtered memories of being chased around the markets, stumbling up the stairs to their apartment, the constant teasing and pulling pigtails as he smiled his way out of everything.

"Don't forget little sis- twelve minutes older," he would add, smirking at her bark of outrage. 

Despite it all, after their first day of big school where a boy made fun of her, he returned home with bruised knuckles and a sense of pride about him.

She was never teased again.

-

They were ten. Tiny. Vulnerable. It was dinner. They were telling an exuberant story about events at school, their mother trying to reprimand while hiding a smile, their father leaning back quietly to observe. They were always so tired these days.

The first bomb shook the earth. They were twelve storeys up with a rusty fire escape. The floor opened up, trying to consume them all. China, cutlery, glasses of water. Their parents, mid-scream and ushering them to the door.

He body-slammed into her, rolling underneath the bed. She didn't even get a chance to follow them; he wouldn't let her. 

"We will survive," he promised, accent rough. That was the first time she saw him break. 

The second bomb landed three feet from their faces, a neon sign of some cosmic joke. To go like this, twelve storeys from their parents and hours from help, seemed like a gigantic stab in the back from the God they worshipped every week. 

"At least you'll always be twelve minutes older," she whispered, turning so that they were hugging, eyes squeezed shut. Help arrived three hours later.

"We waited two days for Tony Stark to kill us."

He never did.

-

They were seventeen, street kids. Nobody bothered to keep check of the two orphans, always getting into fights and never settling down. She worked in a factory, keeping her head down. He helped rebuild the fallen houses, stealing food from the markets he passed everyday.

The man wore an eye patch and a scar, handing them the files. He'd caught Pietro stealing bread, followed the trail of blood the boy had left from a shallow cut to his leg. Her brother always won fights. In the end, he considered that one won as well.

"What do we get from it?" she asked, having seen enough. Experiments. Scenes from a horror movie. A magical sceptre, stolen from under the American's noses. From under Stark's nose.

"Food. Shelter. Money." He paused, eyes glinting like he'd found his prize. "Revenge. HYDRA's greatest enemy is a certain band of 'Avengers'. I believe you two hold a certain vendetta to one of their members?"

Pietro's hand twitched, tapping the table twice in a silent question. She thought about it, flicking through the file once more. If it went well, they could kill the man who murdered their parents. If it went wrong, they wouldn't be alive to see him survive. They'd be home.

She tapped once, nodding at the man.

"Excellent. Now, I must ask. Who's the eldest?"

"We're twins," she deadpanned at the same time as he smirked "I am."

"Twelve minutes does not count," she hissed, eyes still sparkling. He only smiled in return.

-

It went well.

-

"Catch me if you can," he taunted during their training session, rushing off before she could zap him. The blur encircled her, turning and flickering sporadically. Red swirls conjured around her hands, eyes flaring. She could hear his heartbeat.

"C'mon sis! You're never going to win if you don't- ouff!"

He landed heavily, six feet from her. His breath caught, heart jumping, thoughts racing with a continuum of 'owowowow'.

"Slow and steady wins the race, brother," she smirked. "And it looks like those extra twelve minutes did nothing to help your intelligence."

He launched a full-frontal attack, a wood-wide game of tag emerging from their boredom. 

The next day the Avengers attacked.

-

"He said we would save them...we would save everybody..." she sobbed into his shoulder. Boxes surrounded them, secluding them in the alleyway. Ultron would not follow them. He apparently had 'bigger plans'.

"And we will. Just not with him. He gave us the means, and we will finish this. I promise."

For a second, it felt like they were back under the bed, death three feet and one wrong move away from them. He had promised that they would avenge.

They never did.

-

Ever since the blue glow had enveloped her, wrecking her body with electricity so bright she almost passed out, her senses had known her brother.

Before, she knew his laugh. His walk, his awkward voice, his smirk, his childlike humour. The scars on his knuckles and torso from one-too-many fights.

Now, she knew his heartbeat, his thoughts. She knew the pace of his breath, the stutter of his emotions, the nightmares that he tried to hide. She knew that no matter how much distance the worlds put between them, he'd always run straight to her door.

She knew the second it all ended.

Three bullets out of the several were what killed him quickly. The left shoulder, the right lung, the left thigh. 

She knew his last words.

"Didn't see that one coming..."

She knew the reason why.

"A kid, I was trying to get him to the boat. The gun started firing and I thought that was it. I'd die here, right here, miles from her. And then that fucking kid came out of nowhere and...he saved us. He chose to save us."

She knew his last thoughts.

"You will survive."

She was not sure if she could.

-

At the new Avengers Headquarters, there was a single wall. It was fairly blank at the moment, though there were a few names etched on to it;

Howard Stark. 

Peggy Carter.

Pietro Maximoff

"We did promise that we would avenge them," she whispered, stroking the carving. A smile twisted her face, irony kicking in. "And guess who's older now?"

From wherever he was, she could swear she felt him roll his eyes and huff, biting out 'still twelve minutes' from between smirking lips.

**Author's Note:**

> I realise there is probably a lot of grammar mistakes that will make me cringe when I reread this relic I wrote last year properly, but right now I'm running on very little sleep and cba. Kudos and comments appreciated regardless xx


End file.
